An internal committee under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has stated that the pace of execution of the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project needs to increase 50 times for timely execution of the project.

According to the committee, only about 3.3 per cent of total pipes and 1.62 per cent of cable has been laid so far in Phase I of the project. Further, from 1,150 tenders finalised for 3,000 blocks for the NOFN project, work has started only in 10 per cent of the blocks. The team has also identified variation in rates of materials, delay in finalisation of tenders, use of conventional methods and non-availability of required materials, among the reasons for delay in execution of project.